Nations and Isms

Throughout most of the nineteenth century, Europe continued to lead the way in the dual process of industrial advance and pollution accelerated by James Watt’s steam engine and leading towards the crisis that we face at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Meanwhile, the analytical approach to stages of human development adopted by Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson and others was taken forward but also subject to some distortion.

In 1815, Napoleon was finally defeated at Waterloo. In exile at St Helena, he talked of the aims for which he had worked while in power. He said that he had tried to merge the peoples of Europe into nations joined together by ‘unity of codes, principles, opinions, feelings, and interest’. He had thought of setting up a central assembly on an ancient Greek or a modern American model, to take care of ‘the great European family’ with the guidance and protection of his empire. In spite of his defeat, he still believed that what he had worked for would ultimately be realised.

Even in the long run, Napoleon’s alleged dream was to fall somewhat short of realisation. More immediately, the Congress of Vienna, on which his remarks might well have been intended as a critical comment, did very little to order the affairs of the continent in anything like the manner that he envisaged. Then, as if realising their own shortcomings, the principal signatories of the Treaty of Vienna, Austria, Britain, Prussia and Russia were soon joined by France in their attempt to maintain an order based on states and their empires throughout Europe and the world.

Their emphasis remained on restoration rather than reconstruction, however, as they made an attempt partly to go back to the Europe of the eighteenth century rather than moving fully into the nineteenth. Monarchs and their mostly noble advisers attempted in this manner to reimpose their authority over the lower orders. Unfortunately for them, the impact of the French Revolution could not be ignored.